Today’s lesson for members of Congress: Keep safety 1st

In the interest of maximizing public safety and minimizing danger, U.S. senators and representatives would do well to take a two-part crash course in driver education.

As the lead drivers of public policy on rail transportation of hazardous crude oil, ethanol and other highly flammable liquids, they can dart to the head of the class by acting expeditiously to slam the brakes on Republican-led initiatives to block sorely needed safety upgrades to tankers carrying crude. Then, they should speed up action on legislation co-sponsored by U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Cleveland, to strengthen myriad safety protocols governing this expanding segment of train transit in the U.S.

Since 2008, the number of trains carrying oil from the Bakken shale play in North Dakota eastward to refineries has increased 40-fold. More than 45 million barrels now traverse many of our outmoded rail lines each week, with many of them passing through downtown Youngstown and elsewhere throughout the Mahoning Valley.

Mirroring that spike has been a dramatic uptick in accidents and derailments. The U.S. Department of Transportation estimates that those trains will continue to derail an average of 10 times per year for the next 20 years, causing $4 billion in property damage and untold casualties in injuries sustained and lives lost.

SENATE’S MISGUIDED MOVES

As a result, this is no time to roll back rail-transit safety standards, as some in the U.S. Senate curiously are proposing this month as work heads toward the finish line on the nation’s major transportation bill. A measure recently approved by a Senate committee, for example, would block implementation of a rule to mandate more-sophisticated braking systems to substantially lessen the risk of crashes, collisions and derailments. Another provision would delay indefinitely GPS-like systems on trains that would automatically slow or stop them when at risk of imminent accidents.

It would appear then that supporters of such measures have sacrificed concern for public safety on the altar of the parochial but deep-pocketed interests of the railroad industry. When these failing provisions come before Congress for a full vote, they should be quickly, firmly and unceremoniously rejected.

In stark contrast, support for Brown’s legislation – the Hazardous Materials Rail Transportation Safety Improvement Act of 2015 or Senate Bill 1175 – should get fast and firm backing.

The legislation provides a textbook example of responsible public policy on hazardous rail transit. Among other provisions, it would ensure companies replace outdated tanker cars with more modern, crash-resistant cars. It would also provide a tax credit to companies that upgrade their cars before the DOT’s required date and provide millions to safety forces for first- responder training in properly handling accidents and derailments.

Clearly there is little time to waste to replace Republican initiatives that cheat the public welfare with Democrats’ gold-star model for improving train-transport safety. Just last week, two derailments of two-dozen tanker cars resulted in the spill of 35,000 gallons of crude oil and the evacuation of thousands in North Dakota.

Let’s hope that it will not take a disaster on the scale of the July 2013 derailment in eastern Quebec that killed 47 people to jolt slow-learning legislators into understanding the imperative of moving rail safety to the fast track of their summer planner.